Feedstock for shoehook or eyelet riveting machine



Oct. 2'1, 1970 v A. s. STEINBERG 3,535,749

FEEDSTOCK FOR SHOEHOOK OR EYELET RIVETINGMACHINES Filed March 7, 1968 INVENTOR.

United States Patent Int. Cl. A43c 3/00 US. Cl. 24-146 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This disclosure relates to a feedstock for shoehook or eyelet riveting machine of the type provided with a feeding device including a monorail-like guide for the feedstock, in the form of a looped hook made of a single piece, for leather or skin articles, in general and footwear in particular, comprising a plate portion, a rivet portion projecting from said plate portion and a loop-like hook portion fixed on said plate portion on the side opposite to said rivet portion, said rivet portion being adapted to be mechanically fixed by riveting on a leather or skin article such as footwear.

Background of the invention The present invention relates to a feedstock in the form of a hook structure for use with footwear in general and particularly, but not exclusively, for use with boots and the like.

In the footwear industry it is well known to use hooks having a plate-like portion provided with fastening means arranged to be secured to the shoe and a substantially loop-like portion which defines the hook proper and which is fixed on the plate-like portion. These known types, which have a smooth visible surface and a line which is substantially tuned to that of the shoe, are widely used, especially for winter ankle-boots precisely because of their robust and aesthetic qualities and constitute therefore a class per se in the footwear industry.

These types of looped hooks are subject to an important and notorious technical problem in that, precisely due to their structural form, their application on footwear by machine is not possible since such application would cause entanglements or at any rate impediments in the devices for loading and conveying the hooks to the fitting and securing punch of the machine. Until now it has consequently been necessary to fit hooks having a structure of the described type manually, with considerable expenditure of labour and low daily production rates.

The existing feeding and punching apparatuses aimed at by the object of this invention are those having as a component part a helical monorail-like guide on which the hooks are caused to ride and slide and wherein the correct position of the hooks is controlled by a slot extending along the said guide. Such machines are known in the art and are manufactured by a number of manufacturers such as the German firm Hagen of Ulmerstrasse 32, Gottingen-Konstantinhang (Wiirttemberg), the French firm E. Lambert & C.ie Constructions Mcaniques of 14, Rue Iulien Romans, France, or the Italian firm Officina Meccanica Cerim di Pedretti Gaetano of Via Cantu, 17-6, Vigevano, Italy. The principle on which such monoraillike guide is based may also be deduced from my Italian Pat. No. 791,335.

Brief summary of invention The main object of the invention is that of providing feedstock structure of the class described and which overcomes the stated problem, that is to say a structure which is such as to permit the mechanical feeding of a plurality of said hooks by means of existing apparatuses, to existing mechanisms for fixing them to skin or hide articles in general and footwear in particular, without providing a hook structure such as to involve weakening of the hooks in comparison with known types, and practically without the need to modify the existing machines.

Another object of the invention is that of providing a feedstock in the form of a looped hook structure such that, once fitted to an article of footwear, it does not differ from looped hooks of known type whilst, by allowing mechanical and automatic fitting to footwear in general, guaranteeing a high daily production with consequent economic advantages.

A further object of the invention is that of providing a feedstock in the form of a looped hook structure which may readily be produced employing known materials and machines presently engaged in the production of such articles in order that the looped hook structure be advantageous from a strictly economic standpoint.

According to the invention there is provided a feedstock in the form of a looped hook structure preferably made of a single piece which comprises a plate-like portion, provided with a fastening projection arranged to be secured by riveting to an article of footwear, and a loop portion defining the looped hook proper characterized in that said loop portion is a rolled-up portion extending from one end of said plate-like part and forming with the latter a flaring angle opened towards the end of said plate-like portion opposite said one end.

Brief description of the drawing FIG. 3 shows the hook structure fitted to an article of footwear.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT With reference to the drawing the hook structure 1 comprises a plate-like part 2, provided on one of its faces with a hollow essentially truncated cone rivet projection 3 arranged to be secured to an article of footwear in general by riveting, and a substantially rolled-up portion 4 which defines the looped hook proper. This looped hook portion 4, which extends from an end 5 of said plate-like part 2, defines with the latter a wedge like gap or a flaring an'gle opened towards the end of said plate-like part 2 opposite said end 5.

As visible in FIG. 3 the looped hook portion 4 defines a mean longitudinal axis a thereof and an apogee point A on the looped hook portion 4 most distant from the end 5 of the loop and a tangential plane b perpendicular to said mean longitudinal axis a and containing said apogee point A. As clearly visible from FIG. 3, the plate like part 2 does not extend beyond the tangential plane 12.

The lower edges 6 of said looped hook portion 4 are provided, adjacent said end 5, with extensions 7 which extend perpendicularly to the edges 6 and externally of the loop portion 4. The edges 8 of said plate-like part 2 are provided, also adjacent said end 5, with recesses 9 which are designed to house said extensions 7, as will be explained more clearly hereinafter.

The particular form of the described looped hook structure which is pointed out, advantageously resolves the described technical problem since it allows a bulk loading of a random plurality of said looped hooks in the mentioned devices for conveying them to guides which feed the securing punches of an automatic punching machine of the mentioned kind.

In fact, the flaring angle defined by the portions 6 and 2 makes it easily possible to cause the thus conceived looped hook to ride on the mentioned monorail-like guide in a correct posiiton and the random loading of such hooks may be effected smoothly.

At the moment of securing of the looped hook with simultaneous riveting of the projections 3, the machine provides, by means of a simple bonding, the definitive asset to the looped hook (FIG. 3), bringing the rolledup portion 4 in close contact with the plate-like portion 2 and folding the extensions 7 into the corresponding recesses 9 in order to obtain an efiicient and extremely stable achorage of said rolled-up portion 4.

Advantageously the extensions or lugs 7 may be bent beneath the edges 8 at the recesses 9 in order to increase the stability of the final position of the loop 4. To this purpose the lugs 7 may also be arranged nearer to the center of the plate portion 2 and instead of bending the lugs 7 beneath the edges 8 it may be sufficient to firmly press such lugs against the lateral edges defining the recesses 9.

I claim:

1. A feedstock in the form of a looped hook structure, for shoe-hook or eyelet riveting machines, the structure comprising a plate-like portion, provided with a fastening projection arranged to be secured by mechanical riveting to an article of footwear, and a rolled-up loop portion defining the looped hoo'k proper, said rolled-up portion extending from one end of said plate-like part and having a surface facing said plate-like portion, said loop portion being of a shape defining a mean longitudinal axis, said mean axis intersecting said loop portion in an apogee point of its periphery most distant from said one end, wherein according to the improvement, said surface forms with said plate-like portion a flaring angle opened towards the end of said plate-like portion opposite said one end, thereby defining a wedge-like gap therebetween and wherein said apogee point defines a geometrical tangential plane perpendicular to said mean axis and distant from said one end, said plate like portion extending between said one end and said plane.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,239,903 3/1966 Steinberg 24l46 FOREIGN PATENTS 2,823,357 8/1952 Switzerland.

DONALD A. GRIFFIN, Primary Examiner 

